"If it's about money, then things become simple." Xiao Zhenfeng lit a cigarette, with the smoke rising slowly. "What he took was a mold of the Dragon Soul Seal. To outsiders, he appears as a craftsman, but in reality, he's a great thief."

"Hong Lian is a smart person; he's always hidden himself well, hasn't he?"

"Hehehe." Xiao Mu chuckled at Hua Qingyi. "Of course, he has to hide well. There are more people who want to kill him than just the Dragon Soul." He flicked the ash into the ashtray. "When we were besieging Mu Rongyun, he was the only one who witnessed everything."

"How is that possible?" Xiao Lin stood up from his chair in shock at the revelation from Xiao Zhenfeng. "Miao Zhenkun was the mole back then, wasn't he?" He remembered the lonely expression on Elder Miao's face and the deep regret towards Lao Long when he was at Miao Family Village.

"That's right! Miao Zhenkun was one of our insiders. Mu Rongyun entered the experimental range as a collateral relative. When your grandfather was in charge, the external and direct line were two competing factions, and Mu Rongyun was the most outstanding person at the time, so he was exceptionally admitted to Dragon Soul.

"Mu Rongyun was your rival with the most potential at that time!" Xiao Lin pondered if the Xiao family's taboo could be such a melodramatic affair. This brought him a step closer to the truth initially explained by Xiao Zhenfeng.

"The Xiao family had no precedent for an outsider leading, and Mu Rongyun existed as a target intended to be a forerunner."

"Forerunner!" Xiao Lin showed disdain at hearing this term. Someone who serves merely as a stepping stone for a future leader, a pitiable being, and the grandfather who came up with this idea was even more worthy of sympathy.

"Mu Rongyun could be said to be extraordinarily excellent. He was the only one before you who survived the entire process of the venom injection experiment." As Xiao Zhenfeng spoke, his voice turned somber. It was a process he could hardly bear to recall. "However, just when your grandfather intended to re-cultivate him, the toxins within him underwent a chemical change. To this day, no one knows how it happened, and I was then preoccupied with the matter of the seal, failing to handle it at the first moment, assuming it was merely a structure caused by a simple drug reaction, the worst-case scenario being death like those others."

"So you made a mistake, didn't you?" There might be no one clearer than him about the toxin spoken of by Xiao Zhenfeng, a sensation he personally experienced that seemed like a brand burned onto his body, an indelible mark for life. "Father, you must know that survival rates for the toxin need to be strictly monitored and isolated for a considerable period."

"Mu Rongyun appeared normal half a month after surviving, so it was my mistake." Xiao Zhenfeng had never expressed anything for this mistake, and this guilt-ridden feeling always tormented his heart during solitude.

"Mu Rongyun's mutation was sudden. When I arrived at Dragon Soul Headquarters, he had already turned into an unrecognizable form, as if wrapped in layers of black tree bark. The lengths resembled sharp daggers, and his eyes were filled with red blood, while what protruded from his mouth weren't fangs. The lifeless guards were beside him." Xiao Zhenfeng closed his eyes, unwilling to experience such a scene again. So when his father selected Xiao Lin for the lab, he almost crumbled at the thought of killing the other, but he didn't. Instead, he complied.

Xiao Lin's feelings were complicated. "Did you ever think I might become like that one day?" he asked quietly, though an answer wasn't important.

"I have! If you become like that, I wouldn't hesitate as I did then and would kill you with my own hands." Xiao Lin nodded, acknowledging it as the right thing to do. "I hesitated with Mu Rongyun, and in my bewildered and shocked state, he killed a few more people and fled, grabbing the just-recaptured Hong Lian as a hostage in his escape."

"How did you kill him?" The process didn't matter. Asking about it now would only add unnecessary anguish. If such a monster survived, it wouldn't be surprising. Xiao Lin wanted to know how Xiao Zhenfeng did it. "Are you sure you saw him die?"

"We went to verify." Lao Long understood Xiao Lin's hint, recognizing that what they saw was beyond describable by human terms. "Ordinary bullets were useless against him, so in the end, we used chemical weapons containing highly concentrated acid."

Hua Qingyi shivered involuntarily upon hearing this name. If such a thing touched you, survival was impossible; a person would immediately dissolve to nothing, a forbidden territory of instant corrosion. Xiao Lin had seen such concentrated chemicals before, now refined into new components like the special material mask seen at Fei Feng's place last time.

"He dissolved into water before us."

"And what about Hong Lian?"

"He escaped while we were dealing with Mu Rongyun."

"So the Dragon Soul Seal we see now isn't the real seal."

"You could say that. In a mix of real and fake, it has become real." But it's still fake, isn't it? Hua Qingyi thought, realizing these old men indeed caused quite a mess.

"As for that Mu Rongyun you mentioned, aren't you watching over him? Naturally, we won't interfere," Xiao Zhenfeng summarized Xiao Lin's questions with a single sentence. He said a lot but never hit the main point, which was quite frustrating.

Xiao Lin stood up from the chair with a start, watching the few seated before him. "Alright then, everyone will look after their own affairs. Whoever finds Hong Lian first, he belongs to them."

"Wait a minute!" Hua Qingyi stood up and walked over to Xiao Lin. "We'll take Lian with us; it's not that safe to leave him here," he said, before urging Xiao Lin away, feeling a sense of wasted time.

"Those old geezers clearly don't take us seriously, so what's the point of us joining?" Hua Qingyi grumbled discontentedly. These old folks always retained their reservations. It seemed flawless, and they even touched on key points, but still... "Brother, do you feel that although they spoke completely, something is missing."

"Such as?"

"Think about it: how could Hong Lian be with that Mu Rongyun? Wasn't it said he's already turned into a monster? Why wouldn't there be a reason to kill him? Besides, why was the mold of the Dragon Soul Seal stolen? And how did the mole come about? I don't think he started as a mole from the beginning, and why wasn't he eliminated following Dragon Soul's way of doing things but instead left in remote areas? There are things I don't consider that important too."

"You missed one thing," Xiao Lin said, resting his hands behind his head. "They never gave us a clear answer about the forensic expert, and the old geezers didn't mention a word about Xiao Mu, which is the most suspicious part."

"Obviously, that Mu Rongyun is an imposter; what's there to say."

"People can be impostors, names can be fake, emotions can be faked, but hatred cannot," Xiao Lin walked into the elevator and pressed the button for the third floor. "His hatred for our Xiao Family is very clear, so I don't think this person is some kind of impostor for Mu Rongyun. The old folks didn't move against him and instead made Lin Zhifang the scapegoat, which means they must be hiding something from us."

"I'm not familiar with this person, but he doesn't seem so easy to deal with, much tougher than that Fatty Wang ball," Hua Qingyi recalled the gentle-looking person he met at the City Police Department. The first time seeing him left no impression, but the second time, although he appeared quite ordinary, he was too perfectly disguised.

"The Wang Family business isn't over yet," Xiao Lin massaged his head. Fatty Wang is dead, but not by his intention. Wing killed Fatty Wang, and there's a connection he hasn't figured out yet. The old geezers swept this matter aside, but he won't believe it was their arrangement. Xiao Mu hasn't appeared in a long time, has he?

"I saw some information about Hong Lian in the 'Underground City'; the one who funded it is Wang Zhanting. It seems our struggle with the Wang Family has reached another level. You should take some time to investigate the backgrounds of the older members of the Wang Family.

There have long been rumors that the Wang Family has certain ties with the Mafia. The purpose of the old geezers' visit this time also involves the issue of prohibited drugs. Master Four coming to Yanjing wasn't simply to declare war on me.

I think your family patriarch and my old folks should have reached some consensus, so we need to make our move as well. I will handle Hong Lian's whereabouts; you should focus on gathering intelligence on the Wang Family and note down the recent circulation of pharmaceuticals in the market.

The City Police Department cannot go a day without a head; we still don't know who we'll be dealing with next."

"Got it," Hua Qingyi nodded and again stared at Xiao Lin for a long while with curiosity.

"What are you looking at!" feeling a bit impatient under the scrutiny, Xiao Lin greeted him with a jab toward his face.

"No, I'm just thinking if you'd look even more handsome in that ghostly state."

The properties of Xiao Lin's blood were discovered about two or three years after the successful experiment. At that time, Hua Qingyi was bitten by a venomous snake on a jungle mission with Xiao Lin during his early days in the Dragon Soul. Trapped in a deserted area, they dared not use the groundwater.

In a panic, Xiao Lin cut his wrist to give Hua Qingyi water mixed with his blood. Unexpectedly, the next day Hua Qingyi seemed to be fine and was hopping around energetically in front of him.

His blood has detoxifying properties, with minor functions like warding off bugs and insects. The more potent abilities remain unknown, as Xiao Lin refused to be treated as a test subject again after discovering his blood's effects, and he went abroad to study. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to come to qidian.com to vote with a recommendation ticket and a monthly ticket. Your support is my biggest motivation.)

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